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CBC faces more cuts this week, watchdog warns

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting warns of layoffs and cuts to CBC programming which will be announced this Thursday.

Cuts are impending in the aftermath of CBC's loss of a flagship show, Hockey Night in Canada, and its weeknight talk show host, George Stroumboulopoulos, above, to Rogers Communications. (Darren Goldstein / Rogers)

In the wake of the loss of
Hockey Night in Canada
and the millions it generates, the CBC will announce additional layoffs and cuts to programming this week, an advocacy group warns.

Ian Morrison, the spokesperson for
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting
, an independent watchdog group, said a shortfall in advertising revenue will result in cuts to jobs and programming on both the French- and English-language sides of the Canadian broadcaster.

“This is going to damage everything that people see and hear,” said Morrison, citing personal sources.

CBC President Hubert Lacroix is scheduled to announce details of the public broadcaster’s finances at a town hall meeting with employees on Thursday.

“The focus of that meeting will be about financial pressures CBC-Radio Canada is facing, and how we’re going to move forward,” said CBC spokesperson Chuck Thompson. “Beyond that though, I cannot comment any more.”

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Barry Kiefl, the president of Canadian Media Research Inc., estimated CBC would lose about $100 million in ad revenues in 2015 because of the loss of
Hockey Night in Canada
.

The flagship Saturday night sports program was poached
by Rogers Communications
Inc. in a $5.2-billion, 12-year deal with the NHL in November.

While hockey games will continue to air on CBC for the next four years, Rogers has editorial control and gets the money from the commercials. While CBC does not have to pay for the broadcast rights, it still foots the production bill for the games that air on CBC.

Hockey Night
drew weekly ratings of 1.7 million viewers, making it the most-viewed sporting event on the network.

The shakeup cost CBC one of its highest profile television personalities.
George Stroumboulopoulos
will become the new face of
Hockey Night
, which brings an end to his
talk show
George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight
, now in its 10th season on CBC.

Even before losing the NHL broadcast rights, CBC was coming to terms with a smaller operating budget after the
2012 federal budget
cut $115 million in funding to the public broadcaster over three years.

CBC has shed
hundreds of jobs
since then in an effort to reduce costs. Kiefl said there isn’t much more that can be done to save money in technical efficiencies, which means the broadcaster will be forced to reduce staff for any additional savings.

“There’s nothing worse, in my experience, than waiting for the axe to fall, and knowing there’s going to be job cuts — maybe yours,” said Kiefl, who worked for the CBC for 25 years.

CBC’s English-language television draws 5.3 per cent of the prime-time audience, according to the most recent
quarterly report
. Radio One and Two collectively have an audience share of 15.3 per cent. The broadcaster’s news site,
CBC.ca
, is visited by about 6 million people every month.

The Canadian Media Guild, the union which represents many CBC journalists and support staff, is bracing for bad news on Thursday.

“We don’t know yet what the announcement is, and we don’t know how our members will be affected,” said Jeanne d’Arc Umurungi, a spokesperson for the union.

CBC has already trimmed a number of television shows from the fall lineup: dramas
Arctic Air
and
Cracked
, cooking shows
Best Recipes Ever
and
In the Kitchen with Stefano Faita
, and comedy program
The Ron James Show
.

On Friday, the broadcaster announced it would be renewing much of its television lineup for 2014-15, including
Murdoch Mysteries
,
Dragons’ Den
and
Heartland
.

Clarification - April 11, 2014:
This article was edited from a previous version to clarify that CBC will only pay the production costs of games that will air on CBC, not ones that will air on other channels.

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